Much has happened since my last post. Here’s an overview, working backwards, beginning with a photo of our most recent designer in residence at the BodyBioSoft Lab, Charlotte Werth:

November & December, BodyBioSoftLabCharlotte Werth was designer in residence in the BodyBioSoft lab, learning how to dye textiles using bacteria, and undertaking different print experiments.

November 30: Affective Interfaces Seminar at ITU CopenhagenAffective Interfaces brought together scholars, designers and artists in a joint exploration of the interfacial engagements and arrangements conditioning our everyday lives by focusing on the affective modulations effectuated by electronic, digital and architectural interfaces on a cultural, aesthetic and political level.

November 14–18 Quietude2nd workshop in Siena, Italy. This time held at Siena Art Institute, an organisation frequented by the Italian deaf community. So instead of bringing them to us, we went to them. Small steps in collaborative democracy.

October: Enhancing Silence receives Lighthouse funding!The Enhancing Silence project, which builds on the work being undertaken in Italy for Quietude, received internal seed funding from SDU! The project officially launched in November. Over the first few months we are making links with partners in the deaf community in Denmark. Our first interventions will be in May/June 2018 (watch this space)

September 26, 2017–March 28, 2018 Waag’s Fabricademy
I will be following Waag’s Fabricademy, continuing the research I’ve been doing into the pedagogical strengths and challenges of open source education (see Kolding Biohack Academy)

September 4-5, Creative Tastebuds, Århus.
Ferran Altarriba Bertran and I submitted an abstract on Participatory Research through Gastronomy Design. The article will be published in a special issue of the International Journal of Food Design. Here’s the abstract:

Participation and play take many forms in the preparation and eating of food, yet have unexplored potential in the context of gastronomy. To address this gap, we combined participatory Research through Design and play theory to develop a new method for gastronomy design. We interviewed stakeholders and identified four overlooked opportunities to extend play in gastronomy: (1) eliciting play beyond surprise and make-believe; (2) facilitating socialisation through emergent forms of play; (3) using common eating rituals as inspiration for gastronomy; and (4) using play to enhance degustation. We conducted a series of dinners, designed with and for experts, enthusiasts and novices to explore these opportunities; and tested broad applicability of our method through a workshop with student chefs and game designers. Participatory Research through Gastronomy Design affords the design of experiences that appeal to a range of diners; reflection on abstract dilemmas related to the gastronomic experience; exploration of play’s impact on social dynamics; and—when directed at specific questions—can productively inform concrete design choices. Gastronomy that responds to diners’ needs and desires beyond a chefs’ personal understanding of play, is lacking. We posit participatory Research through Gastronomy Design as an exciting—and viable—approach to address this lack.

July: Quietude gets H2020 WEAR Sustain funding
The Quietude project received €50,000 from H2020-WEAR Sustain to undertake a six-month sprint, developing the work from TRL3 (experimental first proof of concept) through to TRL7 (prototype demonstration in operational environment). Partners include The University of Siena (project lead), Santa Chiara Fab Lab, Siena Arts Institute, Glitch Factory, Technology for all, and some amazing members of the Italian deaf community.

June: SDU joins partners in the region to create the Nordic/Baltic DIYBio NetworkInitiated by organisation Institutio Media, supported by Nordic Culture Point and International Semiotics Institute of Kaunas University of Technology.

August 16-17, Constructive & Experimental Research, ÅrhusAarhus University recently changed its regulations allowing PhD students to submit ‘non-written’ works as part of the PhD dissertation, however there are no guidelines or established practices about how to approach this. This PhD Summer School included a panel on practice-based design research. The panel included myself, Elisa Giaccardi (TU/Delft), Jonas Löwgren (Linköping), Thomas Binder (KADK, Copenhagen), Marie Koldkjær Højlund (Århus) and Lone Koefoed Hansen (Århus)
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